Railway-rail



(No Model.)

A. MGKENNEY.

RAILWAY RAIL. No. 277,766. Patented May 15,1883.

L/fmdb Y ag h# y MW m1 y UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALMERON MGKENNEY, 0F CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

RAILWAY-RAIL. l

SPECIFICATION forming part-of Letters Patent No. 277,766, dated May 15,1883.

Application filed March 1l, 1881. Renewed October 9, 1882. (No modela i.To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, ALMERON MGKENNEY,

a citizen of the United States, residing' at Chicago, in the county ofCook and State of lllivnois, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Railway-Rails; and I hereby declare the following to bea full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to theaccompanying drawings, of which- Figure lis a perspective view ofastreetrail waymail constructed in accordance with my invention; Fig. 2,a transverse section of such those sought in my former invention in thissame direction, for which Letters Patent Vof the United States, No.116,975, were granted to me July 1l, 1871, and reissued March 4, 1873,.My said former invention comprised two arches, an upper and a lower one,the upper .one fitting closely over the lower, and sitting withingrooves formed in the T-iianges thereof, the parts being securedtogether by bolts. My present object is not necessarily to make a betterrail than the aforesaid doublearch rail would be it' perfectly rolledand put together, but rather to simplify, cheapen, and facilitate themanufacture and to adapt it to purposes not contemplated in my saidformer invention, i'orthe archedbase is not only a diticult piece toroll, but itis also a difficult matter to keep it straight and to getall the bearing-surfaces to tit evenly together. A further object of mypresent invention is to cause the wheels, when passing any joint, alwaysto bear upon both the adjacent sections at the same time.

Io the above ends. my invention consists, first, in forming thelowerpart of the rail with lianges projecting upward, (instead of withthe arch described in my said former Letters Patent,) and with a groovealong the outside ot' the base of either or both of the said Bauges,

and the upper part or head in the form of an arch adapted to fit overthe iianges and enter the groove or grooves in the base, the parts beingsecured together by means of bolts; secondly,in fitting together thesections of either or both parts of the above rail by means ofdiagonaljoints; and, furthermore,in the specific construction which Iprefer for street-railways, all as hereinafter more fully set forth.

In the drawings, A B represent a streetrailway rail, the part A havingtwo lianges, o, projecting upward from its upper surface, and the part Blying upon the part A, and being arched, as shown at u, to tit over theflanges o. Each part is provided with an inward lateral extension, t,the two being adapted to coincide with each other, and forming the tramfor wagons, usual in street car rails. The arch u is provided withlongitudinal grooves s along its interior surface to receive the tops ofthe flanges o, which should be curved at their tops, and the part A witha similar groove, s', justbeyoud the-outer flange, to receive the outerlower edge of the arch. rllhe parts are secured together and to theStringer by means of bolts g, passing through the lateral exten.` sionst, and also by bolts or screws q', passing vertically through the arch.If preferred, however, the latter may pass laterally through the archand tlanges,as iu Figs. 3 and 4. 'Io make the rail continuous l have theupper and lower parts overlap each other in half-lengths, so that onepart supports the other at the points where the ends meet, there beingat every half.- length a half-joint, alternately above and below.'Instead, however, of having the parts cutstraight across at the ends,forming a transversejoint, I much prefer to cut them beveled, whereby adiagonal `ioint is formed, as shown at r in Fig. 1 and at i" in Fig. 5.By this means the transition of' the vehicle or car wheel fromonesection to another is rendered gradual instead of abrupt, thus notonly atl fording more than ordinary smoothness to the track, but also,as a natural incident to such smoothness, enhancing its durability. Thisdiagonal Ijoint is more important in the upper than in the lower part ofthe rail; but if made in both I prefer to have them formed in con-Vtrary directions with respect to each other.

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, the arch, as shown.

lateral bolts q2.

The base above described-viz., with flanges l defects ot' thisyconstruction are, among others,

instead of with an arch-is an easy piece to roll, being easily keptstraight, and requiring a smaller number of passes through the rollsthan the arched base requires, since it may be completed without turningover.

The modification shown iu Fig. 2 is in all respects like the devicealready described, except that the inward lateral extension, t, isomitted from the arch and made of double thickness upon the under partor base, with a groove, s2, to receive the inner lower edge ot' Tostrengthen the weak point necessarily produced by the groove s2, Iprovide the base along its lower surface, immediately beneath the saidgroove, with a longitudinal wedge-shaped flange, p, to receive which thestringer must be correspondingly recessed.

Figs. 3 and 4 show the adaptation ot my invention to rails for generalrailways. In each of these a T-base, A', is'provided with fianges fv, inall respects like those above described, and similarlysurmounted by anarch, a, sitting in grooves and secured together by The only materialdifference between the devices represented in these two figures is thatin the one the fianges t sit within grooves formed along the innersurface ot' the arch, whereas in the other they do not do f so, and fallshort of the top of the arch.

It is highly essential to the successful operation of my rail that thesides ofthe upper part be made slightly spreading, as shown,in order toform abrace against the lateral thrust of' the train.

By the foregoing construction two-part tubular rails are formedpossessing every possible requirement-viz., practicability in the matterof 'manufacturing together with symmetry,lightness,strength, anddurability; and by no other construction than the one comprehen ded inall thefi gures shownof an upper part arched over fianges projectingupward from the baseand sitting within grooves in the said basecould allthese results be attained.

Iam aware that heretofore a rail has been.

that the very points which should be strongest and least subject to wearare necessarily weak. This is notably the case where the head projectslaterally beyond the base-flanges, and is grooved to receive them,rendering weak and thin the'part which receives the immediate impact ofthe wheels, and which is most subject to fiange-wear. Moreover, the headstands upon a base narrower than itself, producing a tendency toweakness and instability. For the above reasons, in order to render thisrail sufficiently strong and secure to be at all practicable, the utmostnicety in the matter of fitting is required,thus making it difficult andexpensive to roll.l All these difficulties are overcome by myconstruction l above described.

one lying upon the other, and secured together by bolts or screws, theunder part being provided with flanges projecting upward, and with vagroove along the base ot' one or both ot' said iianges, outside thesame, and the upper part being a'rchedover the said fian ges and fittinginto said groove or grooves, substantially as described. l

2. A railway-rail consisting of two parts secured together one above theother by means of bolts or screws, and each formed in sections, thesections ot' the` upper part overlapping those of the lower to form abreak-joint, and the under part being-provided with anges projectingupward, and with a groove along the base of one or both of said flanges,outside the same, and the upper part being arched over the said fiangesand fitting into said groove or grooves, andthe ends ofthe sections of'either or both the said parts being beveled,

whereby diagonal joints are f'orrned, substanl ALMERON MCKENNEY. Inpresence ot'- P. G. DYRENFORTH, WM. H. DYRENFORTH.

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